Training camp is a strange window on the NFL content calendar. The preseason games matter less than any game that follows, no playoff stakes, no algorithm-breaking upset, but the weeks around them are full of practice reps, joint sessions, and roster battles that never happen on camera during the regular season. And it's the one stretch when social teams get more access to players than at almost any other point, before the walls go back up once the games start counting.
Using the MondoTrends NFL Teams Leaderboard — publicly available post-level data across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X/Twitter, and Facebook for all 32 teams during the 2026 Training Camp window (Jul 15–Aug 25) — we pulled the content patterns that consistently outperformed the league average, not just the one-off viral hits. Here are the five worth building your 2027 camp calendar around, and the regular-season habits worth keeping once the pads come off.
1. Lighthearted Pranks
+290% engagement lift, cross-platform
Posts featuring players pulling playful pranks on each other or leaning into self-deprecating humor. The format is simple on purpose: short, punchy, no production value beyond a phone camera and a good reaction shot.
The New York Jets' "'that's awkward, were you not invited?' 😂😂" bit — a player getting left out of a group photo — is the platonic ideal of this trend: zero football content, all personality. The Detroit Lions' "Just some subtle adjustments 🤣" prank worked the same way. Both traveled far past their usual audience because the joke needs no context to land.
Examples
🎵 @nyjets, TikTok — 304.5K eng / 3.1M views — 6.74× the account's TikTok average "'that's awkward, were you not invited?' 😂😂 #nyjets #makebelieve #prank" Watch the post
🎵 @detroitlions, TikTok — 282.4K eng / 3.6M views "Just some subtle adjustments 🤣 #DetroitLions #nfl #prank #funny" Watch the post
📷 @nyjets, Instagram — 179.4K eng / 2.8M views — 3.95× the account's Instagram average "oh that's awkward...🤣" Watch the post
Try this: Build a recurring "bit" into your camp content calendar. Pick one or two players with obvious camera comfort and give them a standing weekly prank/joke segment. Keep every clip under 60 seconds, keep production near zero, and let the player's face carry the payoff. This isn't camp-only: bye weeks and practice-day lulls during the regular season are exactly where a dormant version of this format can quietly outperform your recap posts.
2. Bromance and teammate-duo content
There's no better time than football season to bro out with your friends, and being . The format: two teammates (a position-room pair, a rookie duo, a locker-room friendship) framed as a package deal, usually with a caption that invites the audience to tag their own "duo."
The Cincinnati Bengals ran the cleanest version of it: "Tag your bestie in the comments" over a clip built around the "you're the Joe to my Ja'Marr" bit — turning a Burrow-Chase friendship into an open call for fan participation. The Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers ran similar plays, and both cleared 25K+ engagements on formats that cost almost nothing to produce.
Examples
📷 @dallascowboys, Instagram — 56.3K eng (Carousel) "tag your duo partner ⬇️" View the post
🎵 @bengals, TikTok — 30.3K eng / 108.9K views "Tag your bestie in the comments" Watch the post
Try this: You can't manufacture chemistry, so don't try to script it, notice it instead. For players with real friendships, the content makes itself: a specific handshake, a shared celebration, an inside joke that keeps showing up in the background of other clips. That's lore, and fans crave it. Everyone has a favorite duo, they're just waiting for you to point the camera at it. Carry the instinct into the season and always be on the lookout for the next budding bromance.
3. QOTD (Question of the Day)
Training camp gives social teams a level of player access they simply don't get once the regular season starts — no shootaround-style media windows, no PR gatekeeping between every rep. The teams that leaned hardest into that access ran recurring Question of the Day interview bits: quick, off-topic, personality-first questions asked pitch-side or in the locker room.
Some of the most viral bits of training camp included this moment.
Examples
🎵 @azcardinals, TikTok — 49.9K eng / 608.2K views "feel old yet? 😅 #nfl #qotd #souljaboy #kissmethruthephonе #number" Watch the post
🎵 @titans, TikTok — 33.0K eng / 147.7K views "What a pull! @Big Time Rush #titans #qotd #concerts #bigtimerush" Watch the post
🎵 @titans, TikTok — 32.0K eng / 313.0K views "This celly is iconic #titans #cj2k #celly #nfl #qotd" Watch the post
Across the full leaderboard, the QOTD format ran roughly +66% engagement lift versus the league average post.
Try this: Institutionalize this as a standing camp segment — a few times a week while access is highest, with a staffer whose only job that day is grabbing 3–4 players for a 15-second pop-culture question, not a football one. It's cheap to produce and scales with however much access you have. Carry a lower-frequency version — "locker room QOTD" — into the season for days when practice access is your only real content opportunity.
4. Emotional Connections
+150% average engagement lift, cross-platform
Heartwarming moments, players with young fans, players with dogs, consistently outperformed. This content works because it doesn't require football knowledge to feel something; it humanizes players in a way highlight reels can't.
The Buffalo Bills' Josh Allen rescue-puppy post was the biggest example in the dataset by a wide margin. This one was of the most popular posts league-wide of the entering training camp. The Buccaneers' Baker Mayfield superfan story and the Carolina Panthers' Make-A-Wish moment with a 6-year-old named Asher both ran the same emotional playbook: a specific person, a specific story, and a payoff the camera didn't have to work hard to earn.
Examples
🎵 @buffalobills, TikTok — 536.8K eng / 3.2M views — 2.44× the account's TikTok average "Dawgs and dogs. 🥹 #puppytiktok #joshallen #trainingcamp #rescuedog" Watch the post
📷 @buccaneers, Instagram — 275.8K eng / 3.5M views — 1.57× the account's Instagram average "Baker Mayfield met his biggest fan ♥️ From high school to Tampa Bay, this fan has EVERY Baker jersey 🤯" View the post
📷 @panthers, Instagram — 134.3K eng / 3.5M views — 3.49× the account's Instagram average "The best way to end Fan Fest 👏 What a night for Asher and his Make-A-Wish dream!" View the post
📷 @saints, Instagram — 186.9K eng / 3.9M views — 8.28× the account's Instagram average "What a moment 🥹" View the post
Try this: Don't leave these to chance. Assign someone on staff to actively scout them, team pets, family visits, community partnerships, and treat the best ones as tentpole content, not filler between practice recaps.
5. Season firsts and fresh starts
A star player's reintroduction, a first rep of the season, a new face in the building, this trend treats the preseason like the opening page of the season's story. Fans don't need the whole plot yet; they just need a reason to want to keep reading. Teams that captured these moments early were effectively building anticipation for the season before it started, using preseason moments, new signings, and fresh team narratives to do it.
The Buffalo Bills' "First @joshallenqb run out in Highmark Stadium", the Baltimore Ravens' "First time being introduced as a Raven", and the Washington Commanders' "@stefondiggs has arrived" all worked the same way: a specific, nameable milestone instead of a generic camp update. None of them oversell it in the caption — they name the moment and get out of the way.
Examples
📷 @buffalobills, Instagram — 255.2K eng / 4.8M views — 2.13× the account's Instagram average "First @joshallenqb run out in Highmark Stadium. 🤩" View the post
📷 @ravens, Instagram — 44.5K eng / 830.1K views — 2.17× the account's Instagram average "First time being introduced as a Raven 💜" View the post
📷 @commanders, Instagram — 120.8K eng / 2.5M views — 4.79× the account's Instagram average "@stefondiggs has arrived 📍" View the post
Try this: Build a "firsts" content calendar before camp starts, not reactively during it. First padded practice, first veteran-rookie rep, a free agent's first walkthrough, jersey number reveals, these dates are largely predictable, which means you can pre-plan the shot list instead of hoping someone catches it live. The strongest performer of the three above is also the shortest caption — "@stefondiggs has arrived 📍", proof this trend isn't about how much you write, it's about naming the moment and trusting it.
The common thread
Some of these are easier to produce than others — a QOTD segment needs a staffer and a camera; a "season firsts" moment needs a calendar and a little luck. But that's not a reason to run one and skip the rest. It's a reason to treat all five as content pillars, not one-off ideas: consistent, repeatable formats you can actually build a production calendar around, instead of reinventing the wheel every week camp is in session.
That's also what makes them worth measuring, not just making. Once a trend is a pillar with a name and a recurring slot, you can track it on its own — is the prank series still pulling its weight in week four, or has the format gone stale? — and against the others, so the choice of what to keep, retire, or hand more budget to next camp is a decision backed by a season of data, not a hunch.
Methodology: figures are drawn from the MondoTrends NFL Teams Leaderboard, public post-level data for all 32 NFL teams across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X/Twitter, and YouTube during the 2026 Training Camp window (Jul 15–Aug 25). Engagement lift figures are sourced from MondoTrends' cross-platform AI trend analysis. This is observational data — it shows what correlated with high engagement, not proof of what caused it.